Family films bear, but nothing has prepared you for what he does with his tongue

Richard Sutherland

Contributing Writer

PetTube / YouTube

As he curls and flips his tongue in and out of his mouth, is this bear pretending his tongue is a yo-yo? Or does he have something stuck in his teeth? These are questions only Mr. Bear can answer.

Members of the on-looking family in this video are astounded as the bear shows off his tongue acrobatic techniques, and they should be. According to The Animal Files, a bear’s tongue ranges in length from eight to 10 inches. That means Mr. Bear’s tongue is long enough to lick the bottom of a family-sized peanut butter jar without sticking his snout inside! He will never waste that last bit of yumminess at the bottom of any jar.

Why are bears’ tongues so long? To lap up sweet, delicious honey of course! Bears use their long tongues to obtain honey from beehives. In addition to the honey, the bears eat the bees, pupae, larvae, eggs and wax from the hive. Bears also need long tongues to seek out ants, crickets and other insects in tree cracks, ground crevices, and mounds. Honey covered ants sound delicious!

So, is this bear playing yo-yo or perfecting his tongue technique for food gathering? Perhaps what we don’t see in this video is his brother bear sneaking behind the amused family of humans to steal their picnic basket. Mr. Bear is most likely just distracting the humans so that he and his brother can have lunch!

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Check out the cheeky bear in the video below, and SHARE if you like it!